THE MIDDLE EAST

BY: EFFAH AVOR

Where is the Middle East located?

● The Middle East refers to the region spanning the

Levant, Arabian Peninsula, Anatolia (including
modern Turkey and Cyprus), Egypt, Iran and Iraq.

● It can be described as where Asia, Africa and meet.

▪ It is made of 16 countries and the State of
Palestine.They are: Turkey, Syria, Iran, Iraq, Egypt,
Oman, Yemen, Qatar, UAE(United Arab Emirates),
Kuwait, Cyprus, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Israel,
Bahrain, Jordan.
THE MIDDLE EAST EXPERIENCE.
● The Middle East has large areas of desert.The
Arabian Desert is a vast desert wilderness in
Western Asia. It stretches from Yemen to the
Persian Gulf and Oman to Jordan and Iraq.
▪ The Middle East has large oil reserves. The world's
largest oil reserves can be found in the Middle
East region.
▪ Three world religions started in the Middle East.
Islam(Arabia), Christianity(Israel), Judiasm(Israel).
▪ The Middle East is not full of rich countries.
Despite the large oil reserves there are still poor
countries in the Middle East. For example; Yemen
and Syria.
THE MIDDLE EAST AS A REGION
▪ A region is an area of land that has common
features. Features such as: climate, language,
religion, mountain range etc. Therefore the Middle
East is considered as a region because its areas have
some features in common.
THE PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY OF THE MIDDLE EAST.

▪ The physical geography of a country consists of the

landforms, climate, soils, and hydrology.
The Middle East has landforms such as
mountains, rivers, seas and deserts.
MOUNTAINS IN THE MIDDLE EAST
▪ Mount Ararat: It is the tallest mountain in Turkey.It is
called a biblical mountain. It is believed to be the resting
place of Noah’s Ark at the end of the great world flood.
▪ Mount Damavand: It is located Iran it is the highest
summit in the Middle East.
DESERTS IN THE MIDDLE EAST
▪ The Arabian Desert: It is the largest desert area on the
continent—covering an area of about 900,000 square
miles (2,300,000 square km)—and the second largest on
Earth.
▪ The Sahara Desert: It is the largest desert in the world. Over
90% of Egypt is desert-part of the Sahara desert. It stretches all
the way North Africa from the Atlantic Ocean to the Red Sea.
RIVERS AND SEAS IN THE MIDDLE EAST
▪ The Nile River: It is the world's longest river.It passes through
9 African countries. Egypt is the final country on its long
journey to the Mediterranen.
▪ The Capsian Sea: It is the world's largest inland body of
water, often described as the world's largest lake or a full-
fledged sea.
CLIMATE OF THE MIDDLE EAST
▪ The basic climate of the Middle East can be characterized in
two words: hot and dry, although winters are mild with
some rain.
▪ The tropic of cancer runs through the Middle East which
makes it very hot.
BIOMES OF THE MIDDLE EAST
● Biome refers to the community of plants and animals that
occur naturally in an area, often sharing common
characteristics specific to that area.
● The Middle East has three main biomes;
○ Desert and Desert Scrub
○ Grassland
○ Forests and Shrubland
THE PEOPLE OF THE MIDDLE EAST
The Middle East has many different ethnic groups sprawled across
its countries, Its estimated population of over 411 million includes
13 million Arab migrants.
The Arabs are the largest ethnic group in the Middle East.
The Middle East is the birthplace of the three major world
religions:
▪ Judaism
▪ Christianity
▪ Islam
THE ARABIAN PENINSULA
▪ The Arabian Peninsula is an oil-rich island within the Middle
East.
▪ It is the biggest peninsula in the world, it has seven countries;
Yemen, Oman, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and
the United Arab Emirates.
▪ Below the island are large aquifers of fossil fuels which makes
it very rich in oil.
▪ The Arabian Peninsula formed as a result of the rifting of the Red
Sea between 56 and 23 million years ago, and is bordered by the
Red Sea to the west and southwest, the Persian Gulf and the Gulf
of Oman to the northeast, the Levant and Mesopotamia to the
north and the Arabian Sea and the Indian Ocean to the southeast.
▪ The peninsula plays a critical geopolitical role in the Arab world
and globally due to its vast reserves of oil and natural gas.
▪ The Arabian Peninsula has vast reserves of gas.
▪ The oil and gas has made most of the countries wealthy. For
example, Qataris(citizens of Qatar) are the worlds wealthiest
people on average.
▪ Yemen is an exception on the Arabian Peninsula. It is poor and
does not have much oil its people have suffered from years of
conflict and a corrupt government.
QATAR
CONFLICTS IN THE MIDDLE
EAST.
▪ The Middle East has a region of conflict. There are many rebel groups.
▪ Islam has two branches; Sunni Islam and Shia Islam. The tensions between
Sunni and Shia Muslims has led to violence both in and between countries
▪ An example of the rebel group is the Islamic state or ISIS. It is a Sunni
militant group, with and extremely harsh interpretation of Islam.
▪ Another group is the Al-Qaeda.
▪ The conflicts in the Middle East prevents the development of some
countries such as Yemen which is being held back due to years of conflict.
YEMEN
THANK YOU
ANY QUESTIONS?